Coating-machine



D. H. McNULTY, JR.

COATING MACHINE.

' APPLICATION FiLED APR-30,1920.

Patented Apr. 19, 1921 I m N g fa e/ZZZ unites caries.

nanrnn r2, MQNULTY, a s crrrcaeo, initiators, nests-non or one-near no IwrLLrar r rnnnrrss, or CHICAGO, rrnnvors.

COATING-MACHINE.

To all whom it may concern."

Be it known that l, DANIEL Jr., a citizen of, the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented a certain new and useful Improvement in Coating-Machines. ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention relates to coating machines especially for coating candy.In the form shown it is particularly adapted for coating hard candieswith granulated sugar. The general object of the invention is to providemeans whereby the goodsmay be quickly, thoroughly and uniformly coatedin a completely automatic and economical manner.

To briefly describe the process of sugar coat- 7 ing hard candies, ascarried out in my apparatus, the formed and dried pieces are firstslightly moistened so that the sugar will be able to adhere. This isaccomplished preferably by passing the 'goods for a short preference thechamber is at atmospheric period through a vaporizing chamber in whichsteam is constantly supplied. By

pressure and the steam is therefore approxi mately at, and usuallysomewhat below, the

boiling point and the steam is therefore in moist or, vapor form. Assoon as the them. coated but otherwise separate from I V advancing thegoods'from the inlet end to the del very end thereof and according tocandies have been slightly moistened on the outside they are tumbledinthe presence of the coating material;(inthe present case granulatedsugar). They are then passed out of the tumbler into awaitingreceptacle.

I have provided means for automatically advancing the candles andfinally delivering the sugar, and one. of the objects of my invention isto provide means whereby the. coated candies may be-dehvered but theloose sugar Wlll be prevented'from follow-,-

. ing them into the delivery chute.

I obtain myiobjects by the mechanism illustrated'in the accompanyingdrawing in which Figure 1' is a longitudinal sectionof the completemachine, V

r Fig. 2 is a transverse, vertical section on the line 2--2, Fig. 1, andy j g r Fig. 3 is a. transverse vertical section, on the line 33, Fig.1.

. Like numerals denote out the several views.

v In the particular form selected to illuslike I parts throughtrate theinvention the apparatus has a long f 18 which is fastened to theoutsideof the cylindrical screen 1 arranged, accordingto Specification ofLetters Patent.

H. MONULTY,

' Patented Apr. is, real.

Application filed April 30, 19cc. Serial No. 377,961.

.the present design, horizontally. The screen is rotatable about itslongitudinal axis, havmg a shalt 2 ournaled instationary bearings 3, Apulley 4 or other suitable The mesh or size of the apertures of thisscreen'willvary according to the size of the goods to be coated, thecriterion being that they. shall be large enough to freely admit .thecoating material but prevent the candies from escaping through the sidesof the screen.

it chute 6 is provided at the inlet end of 1 I n I Q i the screenrorintroducing the goods lnto it. This inlet or head end of the screen ishoused'in a vaporizing chamber 8. This chamber may or. may not beprovided with acove'r, although'a' cover (not shown) is 'rdesirahle.Vaponmay be produced in the chamber in various ways, but a convenient 7method is illustrated, the chamber having a nozzle 10 entering throughthe bottom, this nozzle being connected with a steam supply pipe 11. 1

, Adjoining the vaporizing chamber is a trough 12 which also houses thescreen, at least at the sides and bottom thereof, and extends from thevaporizing-chamber to the deliveryend of the'screen where a-stationarychute 14: is provided for delivering the coated goods into a suitablereceptacle, for

example, a pail 15.

Means are provlded within the screen for j t e preferred constructionthese means are in the form of a helical conveyer 16.- The screen issecured tothe screw 16, the latter being fastened to shaft 2, thus thescrew and screen rotating with theshaft. In the 7 design illustratedvthe turns or flights of this screw conveyer extend inward from the'invner surface of the screen to the shaft itself,

the advantage being that in such case they form asupport for the sceenfrom one end 7 to the other.

Trough 12 is designed to contain the coatmg materlalln the present casegranulated i sugar. ;Thef trough is spaced from the screen'at the sidesand bottom sufficiently at least to accommodate a helical conveyor thedelivery chute.

screen and rotates with it. A short distance from theouter or deliveryend of the trough is a vertically arranged partition 17 which confinesthe pile of sugar at this end. It is located usually about two feet fromthe end of the trough and forms a final compartment 19 into which willsift the sugar which may be carried over but which is not firmly set inthe candies. The sugar thus sifted out drops down into a hopper 22 inthe bottom of compartment 19 and thence is discharged into a waitingreceptacle 23. It may thus be said that the apparatus has a coatingchamber 24, where the sugar is applied and a sifting chamber 19 wherethe surplus sugar is removed. It is desirable to form overflow apertures25 in the bottom of the trough on the inner side of partition 17 topermit the escape of any surplus sugar in case the operator introducestoo much.

The conveyer 18, mentioned, extends from the partition 17 a considerabledistance toward the opposite end thereof, and is arranged countercurrent, in other words, oppositely to the internal conveyer 16. Theresult is that when the screen revolves, the sugar is constantly brushedaway from the delivery end of the screen toward the center and headthereof. This prevents the sugar from piling up at the delivery end andrunning the risk of being carried out into Instead, the sugar isconstantly urged toward the vaporizing chamber so as to be brought intocontact with the moistened candies soon after they emerge from thevaporizing chamber. The

counter current conveyer 18 preferably' stops short of the vaporizingchamber, and in the form shown a third conveyer 20 is fastened to theoutside of the screen between the vaporizing chamber and the countercurrent conveyer 18. This may be regarded as a parallel current orco-current conveyer just as the inner one 16 may be regarded as aco-current conveyer. The function of this third conveyer is to render itcertain that the counter current conveyer 16 will not force the sugarinto the vaporizing chamber. The third conveyer also performs anotheradvantageous function in cooperationwith the counter current conveyer,and that is that it tends to pile the sugar f near to but at a safedistance from the vaporizing chamber, the pile rising well into theinterior of the screen and thus thoroughly immersing the candies in it.

The operation will now be readily understood. Preparatory to operating,the trough is charged with sugar to such an extent that the pile willrise well up into the screen. The steam is turned on and fills thevaporizing chamber and the screen is set in motion. The candies are thenfed at a uniform and predetermined rate through the inlet chute 6 whencethey drop onto the bottom of the one place.

screen. The tumbling action resulting from the rotation of the screenand the effect of the internal conveyer subjects the candles thoroughlyto the action of the hot vapor and the result is that by the time theyhave reached the end of the vaporizing chamber their surfaces are softand moist enough to enable the sugar to adhere. The tumbling actionwhich occurs in the second section of the screen causes the candies tobe thoroughly coated with the sugar. As the sugar is cool and the air inthe trough is dry, the candies soon become dry and hard again and thesugar which has adhered becomes so firmly set that it will not bedislodged when the coated pieces pass out through the chute 14 and intothe receptacle 15. As soon as the candies within the screen have passedbeyond the partition 17 they will have passed beyond the zone of thepile of free sugar, consequently as they are tumbled in the screen theydrop the sugar which is not firmly bound to them and most of this loosesugar drops into the compartment 19 from which it falls into the hopper22 and receptacle 23. The final end of the screen, there-- fore, acts asa sifter and the result is that by the time the candies reach the chute14; they are free from all of the particles of sugar except those whichwill permanently adhere to the surface of the candies.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the action is entirely automaticand pro duces a uniform product. The candies are advanced positively andyet as they leave the screen they are thoroughly separated from theloose sugar and there is no danger apparatus is that it prevents thecandies" from adhering to each other. When candies are coated by handthey are apt to be collected in a mass in or during the moistening stageand this frequently results in a group or lump being formed thusrendering the candies unusable without being reworked. In my machine thecandies are fed in a small but steady stream and they pass through themachine in this way and at no time have an opportunity to collect in anyFurthermore the constant tumbling or agitating effect produced by therotating screen immediately tends to break two candies apart in casethey should come into contact with each other. The result is that thecandies all go through with certainty and no batches or masses areformed which have to be melted and reworked.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

1. A coating machine having a revolving screen arranged approximatelyhorizontally, the screen having an inlet at one end and an outlet at theother, a vaporizing chamber housing one end of the screen for moisteningthe contents, and a coating container housing the other end of thescreen for the purpose described.

2. A coating machine having a revolving screen arranged approximatelyhorizontally, the screen having an inlet at one end and an outlet at theother, a vaporizing chamber housing one end of the screen for moisteningthe contents, a coating container housing the other end of the screenand spaced from it, and means between the screen and the container foragitating the contents of the container. V

3. A coating machine having a revolving screen arranged horizontally andhaving an inlet at one end and an outlet at the other,

a conveyer in the screen and revolving therewith for advancing the oodsto be coated from the inlet to the out et, a vaporizing chamber housingthe inlet end of the screen, means for supplying vapor to said chamber,a coating chamber housing the outlet end of the screen, and a conveyeroutside of the screen for preventing the contents of the coating chambercollecting at the delivery end of the screen.

4. A coating machine having a revolving screen passing continuouslythrough three different compartments, the first compart-- ment beingadapted to contain vapor for moistening the goods, the secondcompartment being adapted to contain the coating material and the thirdcompartment being adapted to receive the screenings dropping from thecoated goods.

In Witness whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name.

DANIEL H. MCNULTY, J UNIOR;

